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Book Headhunting Practices of the Asmat of Netherlands New Guinea

Download or read book Headhunting Practices of the Asmat of Netherlands New Guinea written by and published by Ardent Media. This book was released on with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book Fracturing Resemblances

Download or read book Fracturing Resemblances written by Simon Harrison and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2005-12-01 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Western societies draw crucially on concepts of the 'individual' in constructing their images of the ethnic group and nation and define these in terms of difference. This study explores the implications of these constructs for Western understanding of social order and ethnic conflicts. Comparing them with the forms of cultural identity characteristic of Melanesia as they have developed since pre-colonial times, the author arrives at a surprising conclusion: he argues that these kinds of identities are more properly and adequately viewed as forms of disguised or denied resemblance, and that it is these covert commonalities that give rise to, and prolong, social divisions and conflicts between groups.

Book Guts and Brains

    Book Details:
  • Author : Wil Roebroeks
  • Publisher : Amsterdam University Press
  • Release : 2007
  • ISBN : 9789087280147
  • Pages : 284 pages

Download or read book Guts and Brains written by Wil Roebroeks and published by Amsterdam University Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The human brain and its one hundred billion neurons compose the most complex organ in the body and harness more than 20% of all the energy we produce. Why do we have such large and energy-demanding brains, and how have we been able to afford such an expensive organ for thousands of years? Guts and Brains discusses the key variables at stake in such a question, including the relationship between brain size and diet, diet and social organization, and large brains and the human sexual division of labor. Showcasing how small changes in the diet of early hominins came to have large implications for the behavior of modern humans, this interdisciplinary volume provides an entry for the reader into understanding the development of both early primates and our own species.

Book War Before Civilization

Download or read book War Before Civilization written by Lawrence H. Keeley and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1997-12-18 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The myth of the peace-loving "noble savage" is persistent and pernicious. Indeed, for the last fifty years, most popular and scholarly works have agreed that prehistoric warfare was rare, harmless, unimportant, and, like smallpox, a disease of civilized societies alone. Prehistoric warfare, according to this view, was little more than a ritualized game, where casualties were limited and the effects of aggression relatively mild. Lawrence Keeley's groundbreaking War Before Civilization offers a devastating rebuttal to such comfortable myths and debunks the notion that warfare was introduced to primitive societies through contact with civilization (an idea he denounces as "the pacification of the past"). Building on much fascinating archeological and historical research and offering an astute comparison of warfare in civilized and prehistoric societies, from modern European states to the Plains Indians of North America, War Before Civilization convincingly demonstrates that prehistoric warfare was in fact more deadly, more frequent, and more ruthless than modern war. To support this point, Keeley provides a wide-ranging look at warfare and brutality in the prehistoric world. He reveals, for instance, that prehistorical tactics favoring raids and ambushes, as opposed to formal battles, often yielded a high death-rate; that adult males falling into the hands of their enemies were almost universally killed; and that surprise raids seldom spared even women and children. Keeley cites evidence of ancient massacres in many areas of the world, including the discovery in South Dakota of a prehistoric mass grave containing the remains of over 500 scalped and mutilated men, women, and children (a slaughter that took place a century and a half before the arrival of Columbus). In addition, Keeley surveys the prevalence of looting, destruction, and trophy-taking in all kinds of warfare and again finds little moral distinction between ancient warriors and civilized armies. Finally, and perhaps most controversially, he examines the evidence of cannibalism among some preliterate peoples. Keeley is a seasoned writer and his book is packed with vivid, eye-opening details (for instance, that the homicide rate of prehistoric Illinois villagers may have exceeded that of the modern United States by some 70 times). But he also goes beyond grisly facts to address the larger moral and philosophical issues raised by his work. What are the causes of war? Are human beings inherently violent? How can we ensure peace in our own time? Challenging some of our most dearly held beliefs, Keeley's conclusions are bound to stir controversy.

Book Listening After Nature

    Book Details:
  • Author : Mark Peter Wright
  • Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
  • Release : 2022-05-05
  • ISBN : 1501354523
  • Pages : 223 pages

Download or read book Listening After Nature written by Mark Peter Wright and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2022-05-05 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Listening After Nature examines the constructions and erasures that haunt field recording practice and discourse. Analyzing archival and contemporary soundworks through a combination of post-colonial, ecological and sound studies scholarship, Mark Peter Wright recodes the Field; troubles conceptions of Nature; expands site-specificity; and unearths hidden technocultures. What exists beyond the signal? How is agency performed and negotiated between humans and nonhumans? What exactly is a field recording and what are its pedagogical potentials? These questions are operated by a methodology of listening that incorporates the spaces of audition, as well as Wright's own practice-based reflections. In doing so, Listening After Nature posits a range of novel interventions. One example is the “Noisy-Nonself,” a conceptual figuration with which to comprehend the presence of reticent recordists. “Contact Zones and Elsewhere Fields” offers another unique contribution by reimagining the relationship between the field and studio. In the final chapter, Wright explores the microphone by tracing its critical and creative connections to natural resource extraction and contemporary practice. Listening After Nature auditions water and waste, infrastructures and animals, technologies and recordists, data and stars. It grapples with the thresholds of sensory perception and anchors itself to the question: what am I not hearing? In doing so, it challenges Western universalisms that code the field whilst offering vibrant practice-based possibilities.

Book Wild Thought

    Book Details:
  • Author : Claude Lévi-Strauss
  • Publisher : University of Chicago Press
  • Release : 2021-02-22
  • ISBN : 022641311X
  • Pages : 380 pages

Download or read book Wild Thought written by Claude Lévi-Strauss and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2021-02-22 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the most influential anthropologist of his generation, Claude Lévi-Strauss left a profound mark on the development of twentieth-century thought. Through a mixture of insights gleaned from linguistics, sociology, and ethnology, Lévi-Strauss elaborated his theory of structural unity in culture and became the preeminent representative of structural anthropology. La Pensée sauvage, first published in French in 1962, was his crowning achievement. Ranging over philosophies, historical periods, and human societies, it challenged the prevailing assumption of the superiority of modern Western culture and sought to explain the unity of human intellection. Controversially titled The Savage Mind when it was first published in English in 1966, the original translation nevertheless sparked a fascination with Lévi-Strauss’s work among Anglophone readers. Wild Thought rekindles that spark with a fresh and accessible new translation. Including critical annotations for the contemporary reader, it restores the accuracy and integrity of the book that changed the course of intellectual life in the twentieth century, making it an indispensable addition to any philosophical or anthropological library.

Book The Anthropology of War

    Book Details:
  • Author : Jonathan Haas
  • Publisher : Cambridge University Press
  • Release : 1990-07-12
  • ISBN : 9780521380423
  • Pages : 262 pages

Download or read book The Anthropology of War written by Jonathan Haas and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1990-07-12 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book brings together a group of authors who are addressing the nature and causes of warfare in simpler, tribal societies. The authors represent a range of different opinions about why humans engage in warfare, why wars start, and the role of war in human evolution. Warfare in cultures from several different world areas is considered, ranging over the Amazon, the Caribbean, the Andes, the Southwestern United States, Southeast Asia, Polynesia, and Malaysia. To explain the origins and maintenance of war in tribal societies, different authors appeal to a broad spectrum of demographic, environmental, historical and biological variables. Competing explanatory models of warfare are presented head to head, with overlapping bodies of data offered in support of each.

Book Soul of the Tiger

    Book Details:
  • Author : Jeffrey A. McNeely
  • Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
  • Release : 1995-04-01
  • ISBN : 9780824816698
  • Pages : 436 pages

Download or read book Soul of the Tiger written by Jeffrey A. McNeely and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 1995-04-01 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anecdotes, facts, and observations on the role animals play in the daily life of Southeast Asian villages.

Book The Asmat of New Guinea

    Book Details:
  • Author : Michael Clark Rockefeller
  • Publisher :
  • Release : 1967
  • ISBN :
  • Pages : 356 pages

Download or read book The Asmat of New Guinea written by Michael Clark Rockefeller and published by . This book was released on 1967 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A pictorial and documentary record of Michael Rockefeller's two journeys among one of the world's few unspoiled primitive societies.

Book Feuding and Warfare

    Book Details:
  • Author : Keith F. Otterbein
  • Publisher : Routledge
  • Release : 2020-12-22
  • ISBN : 1000258939
  • Pages : 205 pages

Download or read book Feuding and Warfare written by Keith F. Otterbein and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-12-22 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1994, the late Keith F. Otterbein’s scholarship had followed an overall design since 1962, when he began conducting comparative studies of warfare using both ethnographic and cross-cultural methods. Through a conceptual framework derived from systems theory, he made signal contributions to our understanding of the role of warfare in human social evolution. He formulated a Fraternal Interest Group theory, utilizing it to explain not only feuding and warfare but also rape and capital punishment. Believing that armed combat is learned behaviour, he posed questions about its learning process that had yet to be answered. He acted as a major synthesizer of the growing literature on warfare and led attempts among anthropologists to apply their knowledge of war and peace to current events. This volume will serve both as a useful introduction to the anthropology of war and as a needed compendium of Professor Otterbein’s ideas.

Book Environmental Theater

Download or read book Environmental Theater written by Richard Schechner and published by Hal Leonard Corporation. This book was released on 1994 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "There is an actual, living relationship between the spaces of the body and the spaces the body moves through; human living tissue does not abruptly stop at the skin, exercises with space are built on the assumption that human beings and space are both alive." Here are the exercises which began as radical departures from standard actor training etiquette and which stand now as classic means through which the performer discovers his or her true power of transformation. Available for the first time in fifteen years, the new expanded edition of Environmental Theater offers a new generation of theater artists the gospel according to Richard Schechner, the guru whose principles and influence have survived a quarter-century of reaction and debate.

Book The Goodness Paradox

    Book Details:
  • Author : Richard Wrangham
  • Publisher : Vintage
  • Release : 2019-12-03
  • ISBN : 1101970197
  • Pages : 402 pages

Download or read book The Goodness Paradox written by Richard Wrangham and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2019-12-03 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A fascinating new analysis of human violence, filled with fresh ideas and gripping evidence from our primate cousins, historical forebears, and contemporary neighbors.” —Steven Pinker, author of The Better Angels of Our Nature We Homo sapiens can be the nicest of species and also the nastiest. What occurred during human evolution to account for this paradox? What are the two kinds of aggression that primates are prone to, and why did each evolve separately? How does the intensity of violence among humans compare with the aggressive behavior of other primates? How did humans domesticate themselves? And how were the acquisition of language and the practice of capital punishment determining factors in the rise of culture and civilization? Authoritative, provocative, and engaging, The Goodness Paradox offers a startlingly original theory of how, in the last 250 million years, humankind became an increasingly peaceful species in daily interactions even as its capacity for coolly planned and devastating violence remains undiminished. In tracing the evolutionary histories of reactive and proactive aggression, biological anthropologist Richard Wrangham forcefully and persuasively argues for the necessity of social tolerance and the control of savage divisiveness still haunting us today.

Book Darwin and International Relations

Download or read book Darwin and International Relations written by Bradley A. Thayer and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2021-03-17 with total page 692 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Shows a mastery of research and theory in both biology and international relations and weaves the two fields together in a compelling fashion.” —Dr. Steven A. Peterson, Director, School of Public Affairs, Penn State Pathbreaking and controversial, Darwin and International Relations offers the first comprehensive analysis of international affairs of state through the lens of evolutionary theory. Using ethnological and statistical studies of warfare among tribal societies, Bradley A. Thayer argues that humans wage war for reasons predicted by evolutionary theory?to gain and protect vital resources but also for the physically and emotionally stimulating effects of combat. Thayer demonstrates that an evolutionary understanding of disease will become a more important part of the study of international relations as new strains of diseases emerge and advances in genetics make biological warfare a more effective weapon for states and terrorists. He also explains the deep causes of ethnic conflict by illuminating how xenophobia and ethnocentrism evolved in humans. He notes that these behaviors once contributed to our ancestors’ success in radically different environments, but they remain a part of us. Darwin and International Relations makes a major contribution to our understanding of human history and the future of international relations. “Obligatory reading for social and life scientists alike, and deserves to become a standard work in political science.” —International History Review “A thoughtful book that can challenge some of our comfortable assumptions.” —Journal of Military History “Outstanding! This book will become a standard work in political science.” —Roger D. Masters, Dartmouth College

Book Prehistoric Cannibalism at Mancos 5MTUMR 2346

Download or read book Prehistoric Cannibalism at Mancos 5MTUMR 2346 written by Tim D. White and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2014-07-14 with total page 487 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cannibalism is one of the oldest and most emotionally charged topics in anthropological literature. Tim White's analysis of human bones from an Anasazi pueblo in southwestern Colorado, site 5MTUMR-2346, reveals that nearly thirty men, women, and children were butchered and cooked there around A.D. 1100. Their bones were fractured for marrow, and the remains discarded in several rooms of the pueblo. By comparing the human skeletal remains with those of animals used for food at other sites, the author analyzes evidence for skinning, dismembering, cooking, and fracturing to infer that cannibalism took place at Mancos. As White evaluates claims for cannibalism in ethnographic and archaeological contexts worldwide, he describes how cultural biases can often distort the interpretation of scientific data. This book applies and introduces anatomical, taphonomic, zooarchaeological, and forensic methods in the investigation of prehistoric human behavior. It is an important example of how we can exchange opinion for knowledge. "Cannibalism is a controversial topic because many people do not want to believe that their prehistoric ancestors engaged in such activity, but they will be hard put to reject this meticulous study."--Kent V. Flannery, University of Michigan "This is the best piece of detailed research yet to appear that seeks to put in place a body of justified knowledge and a procedure for its use in making inferences about the past. No student of bones can ignore this work."--Lewis R. Binford, University of New Mexico "This could be one of the most important books in archaeology written in the last decade."--James F. O'Connell, University of Utah "Paleontologists and zooarchaeologists, archaeologists and physical anthropologists, taphonomists, and forensic scientists should all read this work. Quite frankly, I think this will become one of the most important books of the 1990s..."--R. Lee Lyman, University of Missouri-Columbia Originally published in 1992. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Book The Oxford Handbook of Culture and Psychology

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Culture and Psychology written by Jaan Valsiner and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-12-15 with total page 1149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The goal of cultural psychology is to explain the ways in which human cultural constructions -- for example, rituals, stereotypes, and meanings -- organize and direct human acting, feeling, and thinking in different social contexts. A rapidly growing, international field of scholarship, cultural psychology is ready for an interdisciplinary, primary resource. Linking psychology, anthropology, sociology, archaeology, and history, The Oxford Handbook of Culture and Psychology is the quintessential volume that unites the variable perspectives from these disciplines. Comprised of over fifty contributed chapters, this book provides a necessary, comprehensive overview of contemporary cultural psychology. Bridging psychological, sociological, and anthropological perspectives, one will find in this handbook: - A concise history of psychology that includes valuable resources for innovation in psychology in general and cultural psychology in particular - Interdisciplinary chapters including insights into cultural anthropology, cross-cultural psychology, culture and conceptions of the self, and semiotics and cultural connections - Close, conceptual links with contemporary biological sciences, especially developmental biology, and with other social sciences - A section detailing potential methodological innovations for cultural psychology By comparing cultures and the (often differing) human psychological functions occuring within them, The Oxford Handbook of Culture and Psychology is the ideal resource for making sense of complex and varied human phenomena.